Planted Community Tank

Hi,

For my next project I would like to set up a heavily planted community
tank (having been very much inspired by Takashi Amano's book 'Nature
Aquarium World'). I was thinking of the Juwel Rekord 96 but I've heard
that there is no way to add extra lighting to the hood in the new Juwel
tanks. Can anyone recommend a good make of tanks (available in the UK)
which have capacity for an extra bulb? The only make I've found so far
which might fit the bill is Fluval.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,


Muddy

"muddyfox" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

For my next project I would like to set up a heavily planted community
tank (having been very much inspired by Takashi Amano's book 'Nature
Aquarium World'). I was thinking of the Juwel Rekord 96 but I've heard
that there is no way to add extra lighting to the hood in the new Juwel
tanks. Can anyone recommend a good make of tanks (available in the UK)
which have capacity for an extra bulb? The only make I've found so far
which might fit the bill is Fluval.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,


Muddy

The Juwel Rio series can have another two tubes added by way of another bar,
giving you four in all.

Peter

Thanks Peter - I'll look those up.

On 21 Feb 2006 12:32:07 -0800, "muddyfox"
wrote:

Hi,

For my next project I would like to set up a heavily planted community
tank (having been very much inspired by Takashi Amano's book 'Nature
Aquarium World'). I was thinking of the Juwel Rekord 96 but I've heard
that there is no way to add extra lighting to the hood in the new Juwel
tanks. Can anyone recommend a good make of tanks (available in the UK)
which have capacity for an extra bulb? The only make I've found so far
which might fit the bill is Fluval.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,


Muddy

No help with the Juwels, but hey, keep us informed about your plans
and progress in tackling a Amano-type creation. I think the only real
difference between him and us slobs that just stick some plants in the
gravel is his unbelievable attention to detail, meticulous planting,
micro swords one teeny stem at a time. And I love the captions under
the photos - "Choreographed by Amano".

-- Mr Gardener

Sure, will do.

"muddyfox" wrote in news:1140553927.333527.198420
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Aquarium World'). I was thinking of the Juwel Rekord 96 but I've heard
that there is no way to add extra lighting to the hood in the new Juwel
tanks. Can anyone recommend a good make of tanks (available in the UK)

I'd build your own setup instead of going with a kit if you want the
maximum amount of flexibility.

Get yourself a good filter, heater, and a tank with a glass top to start.

Coralife is making some excellent freshwater power compact ballasts that
will grow the crap out of your plants provided you give them fertilizer and
CO2. I still use standard fluorescent on small tanks, but I've pretty well
abandoned it in favour of power compact on any tank of size.

I'd never really considered this option but it really does sound like a
good idea. I think my only worry with this would be my lack of
knowledge on good makes of aquarium kit - filter heater etc. I'm a
biologist by training so in some areas of aquatics I'm quite well
versed and in others I'm a total newbie. Can you recommend good
companies which make reliable kit (available in the UK if possible)?

I had a look at the Coralife ballasts - they look really good. The
more I think about your suggestion the more I like it. I could
gradually build up the kit exactly to my own specification.

Many thanks!

"muddyfox" wrote in news:1140721767.030595.259950
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

versed and in others I'm a total newbie. Can you recommend good
companies which make reliable kit (available in the UK if possible)?

I'm not aware of any kits, outside of what a good retailer may be able to
build for you, that offer the maximum amount of flexibility.

Most kits come with a plastic hood and very basic fluorescent light of some
sort, both of which you will need to replace if you want to upgrade your
ballast. Some kits even build the filter into the hood, which means you
will need to replace just about everything short of the heater if you want
to get a better light.

There are a number of good heaters out there that anyone here can
recommend. I use Jager and Visi-Therm Stealth heaters in my own tanks.

There many types of filtration, some of the popular options today are power
filters (hang-on-the-back type), canisters, sumps, or DIY systems. If
you're a novice, you should probably consider the first two.

The two most common power filters are the bio-wheel type and the
AquaClear/sponge type. The AquaClear-type filter offers more adaptability,
but the bio-wheel filter offers nitrifying wet-dry filtration--though bio-
wheels generally require more frequent maintenance in the form of
replacement filter inserts.

Canister filters hold a much larger amount of media, which easily gives
them an advantage over the power filters. I recommend Eheim, RENA, Hydor,
and Fluval... in that order. My experience with Fluval is that they sound
cool and break a lot, but they've been coming out with a couple new things
recently. Hydors are reportedly very popular in Europe.

Your lighting choice should depend on the size of the tank you want. Small
tanks (30 US gallons/120 litres) can easily get away with a good quality
double fluorescent strip, very small tanks (10 gallons) can be fine with a
single strip. The taller and deeper the tank the more light you will need
to give your plants. For anything larger than 30 gallons you'll get the
best performance out of a power compact light IMHO. You can usually find PC
lights in single or double liner strips. Avoid the ones that come with an
actinic blue-spectrum light--they are of little use for a freshwater tank.

Keep in mind that you will have to match the amount of light you give your
tank to the amount of nutrients (including CO2) available to your plants.
If you blast too much wattage into a tank without an adequate C02 system in
place (either by injection or in supplement form), you'll probably just get
a lot of algae and some half-dead plants.

Thanks for all that - really gives me some good insight into what kind
of equipment I can get and what's worth having and what's less good.

In terms of balencing light and CO2 Amano talks about that in his book.
It seems like quite a tricky balencing act which I will probably get
wrong before I get it right. I was going to get a small CO2 biosystem
(yeast and sugar) which comes with a little plastic maze thing which
the bubbles slowly work their way through giving off the gas into the
water. I haven't got room for CO2 cannisters and I would be worried to
leave them alone with my four year old who adores playing with dials
and levers. He would be utterly atracted to the sight of a regulator.
I didn't know that you could get CO2 supplements - are these tablets
which give off CO2? I'm not sure how steady the CO2 would be from a
biosystem so maybe if the rate dropped I could help things along with
supplements.

Thanks again for your advice and help - I really appreciate it.

muddy

"muddyfox" wrote in news:1140859011.662014.37940
@t39g2000cwt.googlegroups.com:

wrong before I get it right. I was going to get a small CO2 biosystem
(yeast and sugar) which comes with a little plastic maze thing which
the bubbles slowly work their way through giving off the gas into the

Sugar yeast definitely works, but it's not very effective for large tanks.

The bubble ladders you are describing work okay, but Red Sea makes a
powerhead CO2 diffuser called Turbo CO2 that is extremely good at
dissolving CO2 quickly for tanks up to about 40 gallons. I like their
system a lot more than the old school bubble ladders.

When you place the Red Sea Turbo CO2 powerhead near the bottom of the tank
it produces a very fine mist of minute micro-bubbles that spend a long time
swirling about in the water column. In my experience I see obvious
accelerated growth within a day of the sugar/yeast mix kicking in.



water. I haven't got room for CO2 cannisters and I would be worried to
leave them alone with my four year old who adores playing with dials
and levers. He would be utterly atracted to the sight of a regulator.

It's hard to compete with this system for larger setups. They can
generally be built into good wooden tank stands with doors you can easily
put a simple pad lock on to be extra safe. They are still a lot more
expensive than the sugar/yeast method, but the CO2 injection is stable,
adjustable, and longer lasting.


I didn't know that you could get CO2 supplements - are these tablets
which give off CO2? I'm not sure how steady the CO2 would be from a
biosystem so maybe if the rate dropped I could help things along with
supplements.

I use Seachem's organic CO2 supplement called Excel for exactly that; it's
part of their Flourish line. I use it in very small tanks and when my
sugar/yeast reactor mix is getting towards the end of its usefulness and
before a new mix starts to kick in. You'll go through A LOT of this stuff
though if you try to use it as the main source of CO2 in any decent sized
tank.